Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
To receive the email edition of Weekend Encounter (without charge) click on the Subscribe button.
Privacy policy: We do not sell or rent subscriber's e-mail
addresses to anyone. We value your privacy.
Global Communications Outreach:
Learn how to be a missionary right from your own home and have a vital part in worldwide gospel outreach by becoming an ACTS People Power for Jesus Partner. Click HERE There is no charge.
Vol. 17 – No. 2815 July 11, 2015
Thought for the week: "Choice, not chance, determines human destiny." – Robert W. Ellis
"A man wrapped up in himself makes a very small bundle." – Benjamin Franklin
"To make no mistakes is not in the power of man; but from their errors and mistakes, the wise and the good learn wisdom for the future." – Plutarch
"The heights that some reached and kept were not attained in sudden flight. For these, while their companions slept, toiled upward in the night."
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is." – Ernest Hemingway
"I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion—and where it isn't, that's where my work lies." – Ram Dass
"The man who chases two rabbits catches neither." – Confucius
As a bagpiper, I play many gigs. Recently I was asked by a funeral director to play at a graveside service for a homeless man. He had no family or friends, so the service was to be at a pauper's cemetery in the Nova Scotia back country.
As I was not familiar with the backwoods, I got lost and, being a typical man, I didn't stop for directions.
I finally arrived an hour late and saw the funeral guy had evidently gone and the hearse was nowhere in sight. There were only the diggers and crew left and they were eating lunch. I felt badly and apologized to the men for being late.
I went to the side of the grave and looked down and the vault lid was already in place. I didn't know what else to do, so I started to play.
The workers put down their lunches and began to gather around. I played out my heart and soul for this man with no family and friends. I played like I've never played before for this homeless man.
And as I played "Amazing Grace", the workers began to weep. They wept, I wept, we all wept together. When I finished, I packed up my bagpipes and started for my car. Though my head was hung low, my heart was full.
As I opened the door to my car, I heard one of the workers say, "I have never seen anything like that before, and I've been putting in septic tanks for twenty years."
God inspired a German to invent the first printing press. The first book that he printed was the Bible, The Gutenberg Bible. I am sure that this invention was for spreading the Word of God.
For hundreds of years the Bible was the most widely-printed book in the world. This is no longer so. The Christian Church has failed to use the printing press which God gave us to communicate His message to the world.
Meanwhile, false cults and philosophies have made full use of God's gift to the Church. For instance, in 1967 alone, Communist China published over 500 million copies, in twenty-three languages, of the writings of Mao Tsetung.
We must not let this great opportunity slip form us. It is still true that the printed page is the most potent means of communicating a message. Literature is a God-given tool to use for the spread of the Gospel.1
Today, while we still have the printed page that is used extensively worldwide, in addition we have perhaps even greater and more dynamic means of communication via the electronic media with the ever increasing use of computers, Kindall and all the hand held electronic communication devices—almost all of which are still using the written word.
So are we in the Church, taking full advantage of this incredible means of communication—or are we just the same as we were after the printing press was invented? Check out the average church website and you will find that all of the content is directed to the church members, and you may be hard-pressed to even find a gospel message.
For instance, it is reported by Tony Whittaker of Digital Evangelism Issues (DEI) that "every single day more than two million people around the world search the Internet for spiritual hope, meaning and purpose." What an incredible opportunity this provides for today's Christians to help fulfill Christ's Great Commission to so many people worldwide! This opportunity is a constant reminder of the words of Jesus who said, "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come" (Matthew 24:14). Even so come, Lord Jesus.
"A liberal paradise would be a place where everybody has guaranteed employment, free comprehensive healthcare, free education, free food, free housing, free clothing, free utilities, and only law enforcement has guns.
And believe it or not, such a place does, indeed, exist.... It's called prison."
– Sheriff Joe Arpaio,
Maricopa County Arizona Sheriff's Office
Louis Pasteur, the pioneer of immunology, lived at a time when thousands of people died each year of rabies.
Pasteur had worked for years on a cure. Just as he was about to begin experimenting on himself, a nine-year-old, Joseph Meister, was bitten by a rabid dog. The boy's mother begged Pasteur to experiment on her son. Pasteur injected Joseph for ten days—and the boy lived. Decades later, of all things Pasteur could have had etched on his tombstone, he asked for three words: "Joseph Meister Lived."
Thought: Our greatest legacy will be those who live eternally in heaven because of our efforts.
Imagine being put in charge of a residential camp for delinquent teenage girls confined because they are considered dangerous. Many have serious mental health issues, impulse control problems, and an awful lot of anger.
One of the last terms you'd apply to any of these girls is lovable.
So when Pauline Starks and her colleague Gerry Davis (both with more than 25 years of experience at the Los Angeles Probation Department) spoke to the Josephson Institute's Board of Governors about the importance of giving these girls love, it was pretty impressive. They refused to write these girls off as if they were social rubbish to be thrown or locked away. Instead, they saw young, damaged girls who needed and deserved to be loved.
They came to talk about how the CHARACTER COUNTS! program helped them change the lives of juveniles confined to Camps Scott and Scudder in Lancaster, California, and there wasn't a person in the room who was not inspired.
It's been said that kids don't care what you know until they know that you care. Pauline and Gerry told stories and cited statistics to prove the effectiveness of liberally applied caring and respect. You might expect that nearly three decades of working with criminals would harden them, yet they spoke of the girls with such tenderness, and described little successes with such pride, that it was evident that their natural compassion and empathy shielded them from cynicism.
What a joy it was to spend an evening with these mortal angels who have found meaning and purpose in changing lives through love.
"For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again."1
Chances are you've read about all of the following failures who ended up making a great impact in their chosen field of endeavor.
For example, as a young man Abraham Lincoln went to war as a captain and returned as a private. Winston Churchill failed sixth grade. Thomas Edison's teachers said he was "too stupid to learn anything." Albert Einstein didn't speak until he was four-years-old and didn't read until he was seven. Louis Pasteur was only a mediocre pupil in undergraduate studies and ranked 15th out of 22 students in chemistry.
Henry Ford failed and went broke five times before he succeeded. F. W. Woolworth was not allowed to wait on customers when he worked in a dry goods store. When Bell telephone was struggling to get started, its owners offered all their rights to Western Union for $100,000. The offer was disdainfully rejected with the pronouncement, "What use could this company make of an electrical toy."
An expert said of Vince Lombardi: "He possesses minimal football knowledge and lacks motivation." Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. Babe Ruth is famous for his past home-run record, but for decades he also held the record for strikeouts.
Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because "he lacked imagination and had no good ideas." Charles Schultz of "Peanuts" fame had every cartoon he submitted rejected by his high school yearbook staff—and Walt Disney wouldn't hire him. After his first audition, Sidney Poitier was told by the casting director, "Why don't you stop wasting people's time and go out and become a dishwasher or something?" When Lucille Ball began studying to be actress in 1927, she was told by the head instructor of the John Murray Anderson Drama School, "Try any other profession."2
What we learn from these people is that none of these people gained instant success. They suffered rejection, setbacks and failures—but they had a passion for what they wanted to do and stuck with it until they made it. And for those of us who believe God has a purpose for our life we need to do the same, and in the words of Winston Churchill: "Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never, Never, Never, Never give up."
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to discover my God-given life purpose and with Your help pursue it with great enthusiasm and never, never, never, never give up. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus's name, amen."
1. Proverbs 24:16 (NKJV).
2. Source: Self-Efficacy Site (website URL no longer working).
NOTE: If you would like to accept God's forgiveness
for all your sins and His invitation for a full pardon, click on: http://www.actsweb.org/invitation.php.
8. Receive Daily Encounter E-mail ... Without Charge
NOTE: On July 4 of 2005—ten years ago—Daily Encounter had just over 32,000 subscribers. TODAY Daily Encounter, a without charge weekday e-mail inspirational from ACTS International is now going to 373,000+ subscribers. Scores of letters from around the world have come from readers saying how much they are being helped by this brief, practical devotional.
Over 100 million e-mail Daily, Weekend and Prayer Encounters are delivered to subscribers every year!
NOTE: Some ISPs (especially AOL) now use e-mail filtering software that allows you to add e-mail addresses to your 'buddy', 'safe', or 'approved' list. Please be sure to add acts@actsweb.org to yours so you won't miss any issue of Daily Encounter.
One of ACTS greatest needs is Prayer Partners to stand with us as we seek to share the gospel with millions of people around the world through E-mail and the Internet and to win the lost to Jesus. If you would like to be an ACTS Prayer Partner, please subscribe to the Prayer Encounter list. Approximately one prayer report is e-mailed monthly. Thank you.
Weekend Encounter and Daily Encounter are just two of the ways the nonprofit organization, ACTS International, is working to improve the spiritual and emotional life of many thousands of people around the world.
Every weekday Daily Encounter is going to 373,000+ subscribers, and every week Weekend Encounter is going to 7,300+ subscribers worldwide—many of whom are in places where it is forbidden to spread the Christian gospel and message. Plus, we reach several hundred thousand more every week through our advertising. As a result, every day we are seeing an average of 5-6 salvation responses from around the world—almost 3,000 in the past 12 months!
If you find value in the Weekend Encounter and/or Daily Encounter, we hope you will be comfortable donating at least $26. That's only 50 cents a week for an entire year (tax-deductible in the U.S.). You can donate in one of the following ways:
Oprah Winfrey: "Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and soon discovered there was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi." – Oprah Winfrey
1. Bible concordance and Bible helps
2. New Hope Crisis Counseling with trained
lay/volunteer counselors. www.newhopenow.org 3. E-Word Today for a daily Bible reading
4. To find your ZIP+4 Area Code in the U.S.A.
5. How to find and write to your U.S. Representative
6. ASK ... Smart answers fast
7. Send a greeting card without charge for all occasions
8. To check the weather in your area
9. Hoax Web Sites
10. Plus many more sources of helpful information
"Because the world is hungry,
go with bread.
Because the world is filled with strife,
go with peace.
Because the world is filled with deceptions and lies,
go with truth.
Because the world would die without,
go with the love of God."